Taj79

Punk Ass Kid.

I think the PG position is so weak, running anyone out there might be better than what we see now. I like Medley, but he has no shot and makes the offense play 4 on 5.

I have no allegiance to Meadows, just a fifth-year mercenary. I'd rather ride the times with medley and see if the play helps him develop or go with the great Hughes experiment and see what that brings. Let's also not forget that Kellen Thames was listed as a point guard when originally recruited although his recent play and position suggests otherwise. I think the p[roblem we have at point now comes from CTF's coaching strategy. I noted in observations after the Joeys game that the style is all hero ball. Get that one great player to ride into the sunset on. The problem was that the last two years, that hero was Collins. By being so dependent on a hero that is a point, CTF was unable to persuade anyone to come to SLU and basically sit on the bench and ride Collins' coattails. Ergo, no other developmental point guard came in and we are left with a freshman who is essentially learning on the job (as is an out of position player in Hughes). Roster construction is to blame.

I always thought there was going to be some contraction within the NBA. Too many franchises, too many bad teams, too many bad owners. My buddy once won tickets to a Wizards game in DC. Face value on the ticket was $40 and they were in the last row of the arena, upper bowl end zone. The freaking Wizards! The NBA has had a more nomadic history than the other leagues. Cincinnati. Omaha. St. Louis. Fort Wayne. Buffalo. San Francisco. San Diego. Vancouver. Seattle. Syracuse. Rochester. Baltimore. Pittsburgh. I was saw Wilt and the 76ers play a home game in Hershey, PA. I also find it amazing teams in Sacramento, Salt Lake City and Oklahoma City survive. Must be the TV contracts propping them up because the money they pay some of these bigger buffoons is downright criminal.

@cgeldmacher: I noted the Hughes TO numbers back one page, second post from the top.

VCU is a strange team to watch. They remain uber-athletic but seem to compete in games by committee. One night it's Bamisile, as he did against us with 29 or whatever. But overall he's only averaging 12 ppg. Shulga and Bairstow are decent transfers from Utah State and play complimentary, controlled ball. Shulga is the team's leading scorer at almost 15 ppg. Bairstow is at 11 ppg and the fourth double digit scorer is Zeb Jackson. From a scoring standpoint, their interior players don't jump out at you. Fermin starts and gets spelled by Lawal and the other front line guy is Kuany Kuany. These guys are offensive Jekyl-and-Hydes. But defensively, takign the ballto the rim with both Fermin and Lawal is pure dangerous. Kuany likes to shoot the three but is streaky even at nearly 40%. Surprisingly, two of their three conference losses have come at Siegel. But very early in the conference slate. They've won 8 of their last nine including the 49 to 47 slugfest with Dayton last Friday. Going to be a tough test no matter what.

Saint Louis University ..... where coaches come to die.

It was a titanic effort but we still fell short. Some observations: If you haven't noticed, we have found our "identity" and that identity is also our offense, namely hero ball compliments of Sincere Parker. I have long asked what CTF's offense is and these last two games have shown it: hero ball. Find that one extraordinary talent and run it into the ground. It started with Javon Bess. Tremaine Isabell. Jordan Goodwin. Javonte Perkins. Yuri Collins. And now Sincere Parker. It was also Marcus Smart. Le'Bryan Nash. And Phil Forte. This is what CTF is. The injury bug excuse. Again, it was solely Sincere Parker. That broken foot took the hero out of hero ball. Meadows doesn't matter. Thames didn't matter. Hughes didn't matter. Sure, those injuries might have limited the rotation but the real injury was the loss of Parker. Jimerson is not equipped to be 'the man.' The kid works his arse off but he can't create his own shot. Only Parker can. I bought that but these last two games have revealed the CTF strategy beyond a shadow of a doubt. Turnovers killed us but again as Soderball has pointed out as have others our true weakness is evidenced by the fact that we have no point guard. For all the Hughes love, he had seven turnovers. Medley had four and Ezewiro three. Compounding Ezewiro's bad game is the fact the Joeys had no interior presence whatsoever. Yet Big Brad was nowhere to be found today. Essankado didn't even play. Klacek is useless. Today would have been the best day to play matchup and leave Hargrove at the 5. Defense. What defense? First Parker then Thames down the stretch played matador defense. Ezewiro's fifth foul was pure stupidity .... the man was in for a dunk/layup. With four fouls, you basically concede that and live to fight another day. Not Big Brad. Right before Tim McCormack echoed my point I noted X. Brown could only go to his right. Yet no one overplayed him and forced him left. Parker could have dribbled out his defensive rebound with 28 seconds to go and us up one. Instead he throws a dumb pass to the small point guard and we turn it over. Four seconds after that .... FOUR SECONDS .... TJ loses Fleming for the dunk. Parker makes the go ahead layup again but then fouls Brown. Then despite calling a timeout right before that, Ford designs a play to get the ball into Parker to go the length of the court. NOT LIKE EVERY FAN IN THE BUILDING KNEW THAT WAS COMING! Three guys were on Parker but heros don't give it up, do they? We shot 86% from the line and one would think that with 28 seconds left and the ball, we'd be smarter. The Joeys will go for the steal and missing that, they would foul. Likely a three-point lead with under 20 to go. The melted down just like their coach did. Another win would have been nice yet immaterial as far as the season is going. To come all that way and then lose it just hurts.

The only place nearby is the Explorer's Den on West Olney west (up) from Gola. It is however, mostly a deli. When the alumni would meet at La Salle for a game, it was usually a catered affair in the student union. The Olney section is not a great place overall for Philly. OOPS ... A LITTLE TOO LATE HERE.

Watched Dayton utterly destroy St. Joe's on Hawk Hill last night. First nine minutes, Hawks scoredlike 23 and were up 11. I said no way Dayton could play at that pace and while the statement was half correct, i should have said St. Joes. In the second part of the first half, Dayton outscored the Joey's 22 to 15 and then continued the onslaught throughout the second half. to win going away 94 to 79. Dayton laid 60 on them int he second half and the Joey defense looked alot like ours. Christ Essandoko handled Holmes very well showing that an equal big man can neutralize Holmes on any give night. Problem was nobody covered Santos and Elvis and Bennett and Cheeks. Dayton shot 57%from the floor and another 55% from three. And of course Dayton got 22 free throws to the Joey's 8. In a real surprise, Rhodey went into Foggy Bottom and just trashed Geedubya winning by 23. A relative unknown Zek Montgomery led the Rams with 30. The Rams held James Bishop to nine and Geedubya can't win when one of it's big three is off as he was.GW also palyed without Garrett Johnson in the front court. Finally, VCU handled Fordham in the Bronx winning 75 to 60. Top four in the A10 appear to be forming .... Dayton, Richmond, VCU and Loyola.

Didn't the NCAA (yeah, like they're relevant) say that NIL payments cannot be used as recruiting incentives? Isn't that part of what Tennessee is under investigation for? I can accept al this .... or just move on from college sports entirely. Right now, I'm leaning towards moving on..

Jocius is not what I would call good ...... however, given our lack of any inside presence on the defensive end, he may make me eat my words and evaluation. If the matchups play out as I see it then medley gets Brickus, Hughes gets Brantley, Hargrove gets Shepherd, Jimerson gets Gill and Ezewiro gets Jocius. Straight up, I give the advantage to La Salle for Brickus and brantley with maybe a push in the Hargrove matchup if Shepherd is off his game. Ezewiro is better than Jocius and the Jimerson/Gill matchup becomes one of speed and quickness --- Gill might be the better athlete but Jimerson is the better basketball player. La Salle has Marrero on the bench and he is a streaky gunner. A cold Wednesday night at the Gola Mausoleum.

@Soderball: could not agree more. Some talking head over at ESPN said a few years ago that the college game is a guard's game and our weaknesses there are getting more and more obvious with each passing game. One thing I notice is our PGs get pushed out to nearly half court to initiate anything on offense. of course, i still don;t know what our offense does but that's a different discussion.

I have watched La Salle enough this year to know Jocius is nothing but a weak Euro four. The only way you can say he is their inside game is that is because they have no one else able to go inside except Ryan Zan who is a 6'7" light sophomore. La Salle remains the B&B boys ---- Brickus and Khalil Brantley. Both average around 15 ppg with Brickus as the 1 and Brantley the two. Dashon Sheperd is a nice player but at 6'5" usually too smalel to battle inside with any consistency. Anwar Gill is the same as he was four years ago --- a slasher to the basket with little else going for him. Andres Marrero is their sixth man and isn't too bad but that is as far as they go. I will say that this year, they are all allowing Frannie Dunphy to coach them better and it is working out better. If we get beat by Rokas Jocius, we really suck.

The in-game commentary has been disturbing. Alexa Datt, Scott Highmark, Troy Robertson and now John Giannini have all said poor CTF and poor SLU with all the injuries. Again, to me it is roster assembly and role player talent. Parker I get but the rest must be coming from pre-game interviews with CTF and the SLU staff. Since this team can't seem to fathom defense, what about offense? Meadows, Hughes, Thames and Medley all average about 5 ppg. Zhang is at just under 3. That's 23 ppg from 5 guys. Jimerson can't get open. Parker is going on-against-the-world. Ezewiro is limited and Hargrove is inconsistent.

Sorry I'm lazy. Who is Heiar with?

Coast-to-coast super conferences of 20 teams each. The Big Ten, the SEC, the Big Twelve and the ACC. That will be 80 teams controlling all of college sports. These will be the new minor leagues for the NFL and NBA and schools currently in conferences below that will be the new minor leagues for them. I watch some FCS football now. I'll likely do the same for the new D2 in college basketball.

The genie is out of the bottle. No one getting money now (the biggees like Isiah Pack, Armando Bacot, Caleb Williams, et.al.) are going to let you replace all things into the bottle where they perceive they will suffer. Congress enacting a law is like a restraining order ---- most will walk right through it. In hindsight, the monthly stipend would have been a good idea. For a while. Until Phil Knight decided to fun all thew Oregon athletes. Or T. Boone Pickens. Or someone else. We ae where we are because the NCAA was slow on the uptake. Can't fix it now. broy has some good to great points but it just won't happen. Video did kill the radio star, y'know.

Longest losing streak since 2010-11.

Good try though.

So hard ——- while I want to root for the guys does a win just prolong the CTF tenure? Am I more content to accept the CTF mediocrity knowing CTF is out the door?

Medley off the Schneid; one behind Curcic.

Tied. Wow.

Fordham has better players than us. Chew on that one for a while.

Curcic in.